Atc RAKs and Postcard for a Swap

12 - 18 February is RAK week and 17 February is RAK day. I am in an ATC swap group and thought it would be a good idea if we randomly selected people in the group to send ATC RAKs too. Today I made five to send out.

I am also in a postcard swap for UKStampers FB group, so carrying on with the same theme as the RAKs, I made this quick postcard, the theme is faces. It's very plain as it has to be posted naked, ie as it is, no envie or anything!

Three Atc's

Created some backgrounds using modelling paste, matte medium and textured sand paste.

Then I made three grungy Halloween type atc's for a swap I am holding over on a FB group by adding different colours of media paint until I was happy with what I had.

I added some quin gold to the pieces of wire and the staples.

The red is from the media mister.

And the words have been wiped over with quin gold.

I'm also linking up to Country View Crafts as they have a theme of all things spooky.

Autumnal Leaves

Over at Stampotique this week they have chosen the theme of nature.  With all the leaves falling off the trees at the minute I thought I'd replicate that with my tree.  The background is coloured with pan pastels over a brick stencil, the tree is coloured with pan pastels and Head and his crown are coloured with water colour paints.

Don't Fear

Well what a fab theme over at Dragons Dream TIO this week.  Sylvia has chosen 'don't fear', she is asking for a scary image, a crowd of purple and textures.  So I ran my tag through the rellie rave Cuttlebug embossing folder and coloured it with violet shade (470.3) pan pastel and added a hint of black (800.5) around the edges.  I stamped the skulls with black stazon, one onto acetate and two onto white card.  I stamped the bottles onto acetate again with black stazon.  I placed the skulls behind the bottles and cut the excess off.  The top skull has been placed behind a piece of white card.  I stamped fear your dreams from the TH, stuff to say stamp plate and cut the individual words out.  I cut a piece of wire mesh to go over the top and used staples to attach it.  I added gem stones for the eyes, an eyelet and some black fibres to finish.

Great challenge, thanks very much.

This tag won me a Dragons Dream top 3 blinkie.

Pastel Tag

This week Pan Pastel UK Challenge are asking for pastel colours.  I went back to my old faithful canvas ~ corrugated card.  I cut a piece in the shape of a tag, peeled back some of the first layer and gave it a couple of coats of butternut eco-friendly paint.  Once dry I applied sand eco-friendly paint to the edges.  I ripped a piece of white copier paper, stamped it in versa mark with the script from the TH papillon plate.  Used the violet and turquoise pan pastels to pop the image and colour the background.  (Well I had to use some pp's with it being the pp challenge.)  I coloured the butterflies using the new spring limited edition of distress inks, gave them a spritz of water, stamped them onto white cardstock and cut them out.  I rolled a piece of text paper, tied it with a bow that I had made from white fabric and dyed with dusty concord distress stain and placed it on the copier paper.   I stamped the words 'happy place' onto a piece of white cardstock in shaded lilac distress ink and coloured it with squeezed lemonade.  I added the pearls, the fabric flowers and stapled the loop of fabric at the top.  I finished by edging the tag with dusty concord distress stain.

A Couple More Tags

Yes Kate, I know, it's pink!!!  I coloured the fabric flowers and strips of fabric with spun sugar distress stain.  The lace is coloured with vintage photo distress stain.  I added the skeleton leaf and the stapled tassel along with the image to the embossed tag.

Another tag made from the backgrounds created on the previous post.  Again I made the flower and added a couple of pieces of distress stained lace and fabric strips.

12 Days of T!m Tags

Well I have to admit that this year I'm a tad disappointed with the 12 days tags.  I only got inspired on day 7, but don't have any of that stamp set.  Then day 8 came along and 'wow', that got my creative juices following.  So here is my effort and as you can see, I decided not to go along with the Christmas theme.  I really enjoyed making it though.  

A Kerri File!!!!

After having watched a stream by Kerri, I just had to have a go at making one of these.  It's not the same as hers as she has used a US tab file and I have used a cardboard wallet file.  The sizes and material are slightly different, but the idea is the same.

This is the outside and is decorated with my new stewart gill paints and stamps from my new TH  sets, along with a few other bits and pieces.

This is the inside with the tags in with the tabs turned up.

This is the inside with the tags in and the flap turned down.

This is the outside with the flap turned out.

Then it all concertina'd together.

A Challenge

I set myself a challenge which was not to use any words (as in large stamped words) or an image.  This is what I came up with.  Both are canvas's.  Top one had half a dictonary page attached and white gesso was applied.  Crushed olive distress ink was swooshed over it and royal purple stazon was used to edge.  I covered a small box and 3 cut down straws in text paper and used the purple again. I attached a piece of Angelina Fibre with fibre in it and a piece of wire mesh.  Inside the box is a piece of wire and a large clear gem stone.

This one actually looks more pinky / red than it really is, so I might try and get a better picture tomorrow in different light.  Anyway I wiped on various colours of acrylic paint with a baby wipe.  Covered a piece of wood in aged mahogany crackle paste and varnished it when dry.  I added a few nails to the top.  I bound a few oddments of metal pieces together for each of the circles and sat them on top of a piece of thick copper wire.  The mesh at the bottom is material which I attached with staples.

***Edited*** This photo shows the truer colours.

This one also fits in with this weeks Lotstodo Challenge - shapes

Distressed Swap - Lotstodo

I finally managed to locate some hessian today in Boyes. It was tucked away in the corner, so now the roll is a meter shorter!!!! This is my third piece for the swap I am hosting. I also managed to get my sewing a bit straighter on this one!!!

I stamped the image with black stazon onto a piece of material, then soaked in it cold coffee. Once dry, I glued it to another piece of material sewing the pieces onto a piece of torn paper. I then stapled everything onto a piece of hessian.

Blue Board Book

Ok so you've already seen the front cover


These are some of the elements I used on the inside


These are a couple of the double page spreads


All the pages very plain and easy going. I could have done lots more to them but sometimes less is more and I like to keep it simple

Won't show you any more as it's not fair on the person who is going to get it. All I will say is that it's VERY blue!!!!!

More Improvising!!!!!

T!m's tags - day 9 - home made film strip with acetate and a utee moulded flower!!! Images provided by T!m


T!m's tags - day 8 - Lampost is Paperartsy from the Urban Snapshot range - Key is from Hilda!!!


Day 7 - really enjoyed the techniques for this one. Ended up using lime stickles for the holly and black diamond for the berries!!! Stamp is a Crafty Individuals one - CI-164


Day 2 - finally - as you can see my range of christmas stamps is very limited!!! But I made the shaker from the packaging that T!m's discs come in and found some silver micro beads to fill it with!!!!

At least I'm up to date now - just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings!!!!

Distressed Atc's

This months UKStampers theme is 'distressed'. Here are mine. I used distressed ink to create the backgrounds. Stamped the images using versamark and embossed with black soot distressed embossing powder, then added various embellishments. Using my paper distresser I distressed the edges, inked them with black soot distressed ink and mounted them onto black card.

New Home Card

Andrea is moving house shortly, so I made her this new home card. I made the new home template using the cricut design studio and storybook cartridge. I was quite pleased with it as it was my first attempt. I used the design as a mask on the front of the card using peeled paint distress ink, and then topped it up with spiced marmalade. Added a strip of card and paper and a bit of ribbon. Added a layered flower and finally mounted the piece I'd cut and been using as a mask and stapled another piece of ribbon and added a couple of tiny flowers. Oh and last but not least, I used my PINK Zutter corner rounder to round off the edges. And I must thank Hilda for reminding me that I had one!!!!

Mega Swap - Lotstodo

This is the mega swap piece that I made for the swap on the Lotstodo Forum which Andrea arranged. My maker is Ellen and my reciever is Ju. Andrea set the criteria for the swap and mine was to use, a canvas the wrong way round, incorporate brown and silver, use a word and a number and a piece of metal. The background is a tumble dryer sheet sprayed with glimmer mist and distressed re-inkers. I painted the top of the canvas silver and the sides brown. I added the image, the various metal pieces, the silver bow and the gems to the crown. I cut a piece of wire mesh to fit the canvas and stapled it to the wood, added the 4 brown buttons, cut the letters from brown card with my new storybook cartridge for the cricut machine to spell out No1 Prince.